MOBILE, Alabama -- According to beloved Southern scribe Fannie Flagg, 69, her current book-promoting odyssey is informally called the "Catch me while I'm still alive tour."

That was just one of the charming and humble quips the Birmingham-born author, performer and all-around cultural icon delivered to a captivated crowd of nearly 800 on Tuesday at the Arthur R. Outlaw Convention Center.

Flagg, as gracious, animated and effortlessly funny as ever, showed no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

Flagg said her publishers suggested she start the tour in New York, but the Alabama gal said, "no, I'm going to Fairhope and Mobile and Page & Palette," Flagg said. "I always start my book tours here because I have found that it is good luck."

As the audience sipped iced tea, and tucked into chicken, mango, dried cranberry and feta cheese salads and yellow layer cake with chocolate frosting, Flagg read from "Filling Station" and shared her inspirations and affection for Alabama.

The epic "Filling Station" intertwines the late-in-life identity crisis of Point Clear matriarch Sookie Poole in the present day, with the adventures of a plucky Polish immigrant family in Pulaski, Wis., circa World War II.

"Filling Station" also weaves in the amazing, largely forgotten story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS), a team of elite WWII pilots.

The first "Filling Station" passage Flagg read was packed with regional references that made the audience smile, laugh and clap.

For instance, in a scene where Sookie drives across the Mobile Bay Bridge on her way home to Point Clear, she is bewitched by the beauty of the bay's sparkling water, and the sailboats and pelicans adding to the serene scene.

Sookie also passes Page & Palette on her drive. The audience was thrilled to hear Flagg name-check the bookstore during the reading.

One section that got a lot of knowing chuckles involved Sookie recalling the over-the-top weddings of her three daughters.

One had a Crimson Tide-themed wedding, another a gaudy "Gone With The Wind"-inspired affair, and the third was an animal-filled fiasco featuring a canine best man and a turtle ring-bearer.

The second passage to which Flagg treated the audience focused on the novel's Polish immigrant family, the Jurdabralinskis.

The industrious Jurdabaralnskis run a family gas station that the mother and four daughters have to run on their own when World War II breaks out.

In the section Flagg read, the spunky Jurdabralinski girls glide around the station on roller skates as they attend to their customers.

Flagg didn't want to give away too much of "Filling Station's" plot, but it's clear that at some point, Point Clear, Pulaski and Poland intersect, and Sookie is a crucial link in the connection.

Flagg explained what sparked the idea for Sookie's shocking discovery that she comes from folks far removed from her father and vain, histrionic Southern mother, Lenore.

Flagg told the audience that a few years back, a friend convinced her to take National Geographic's Genographic Project DNA test.

Flagg said she was fairly sure that she knew her family's origins. But she got some surprising results. Apparently, she was in possession of a rare genotype only found in Finns.

"Finland?" Flagg said she recalled thinking when she found out. "I can't be Finnish. I'm from Alabama!"

Following the reading, and before signing books for hundreds of eager fans, Flagg warmly thanked everyone for coming, and proved just how much she respects and values her Alabama readers.

"I hope you find ('Filling Station') amusing," she said. "I hope you're
pleased with the way I portrayed us."